Linssen Boats - good or bad?

[Greg2]

With You & Sea by any chance?
The previous owner of the company sold their Nelson not too long ago, I was looking forward to going out on her for my Day Skipper practical.

We are not ready to buy this year, our boat is going in for some work and after that a few more hours cruising over the summer, next year we will be looking for a newer new to us boat that we can take out on the North Sea and up to Denmark

No, not You and Sea - I did it with East Anglian Sea School in Suffolk. At that time they had an arrangement with the owner of the boat and we spent a week aboard with three days refresher training followed by the practical exam. A challenging but enjoyable experience
.

 

[PaulRainbow]

No, not You and Sea - I did it with East Anglian Sea School in Suffolk. At that time they had an arrangement with the owner of the owner of the boat and we spent a week aboard with three days refresher training followed by the practical exam. A challenging but enjoyable experience
.

I think they still use it, a friend of mine did Day Skipper on it last year.

 

[Dino]

This Dale Nelson 38 is well priced and EU Vat Paid in Ireland
https://motorboats.apolloduck.ie/boat/dale-38-for-sale/788423

There are plenty of nice Broom 42CL’s for sale in the UK and they are getting cheaper. It is hard to find an EU Vat Paid one in Europe.
There was one very cheap one for sale in the Channel Islands last year and it had no VAT paid but it sold.

 

[SimonX]

There are plenty of nice Broom 42CL’s for sale in the UK and they are getting cheaper.

Been keeping an eye on them, there are 9 for sale in UK, no move on listed prices but some have been up for quite a while so Im sure would be open to lower offers if we were in a position to buy straight away. The only one I'm tracking that has gone down in price is a 36 and her ladyship wasnt keen on the reduced space and it has Mercruiser engines.
My BiL visited the Linssen that is for sale cheap this morning and, as predicted it has the bunks in the forward cabins. He was very impressed with the quality of finish on the boat so I think, if we do go for the shared ownership option, a Linssen might be the one to go for.
The only Broom of a near-suitable size we can find in Netherlands is a 44 which is a bit too old (1995) and getting a bit big.
There's an Atlantic 42 in Dublin, EU paid but getting it to mainland Europe could be difficult
I think we're definitely leaning to renting a Linssen this year with a view to buying later

 

[Time Out]

Been keeping an eye on them, there are 9 for sale in UK, no move on listed prices but some have been up for quite a while so Im sure would be open to lower offers if we were in a position to buy straight away. The only one I'm tracking that has gone down in price is a 36 and her ladyship wasnt keen on the reduced space and it has Mercruiser engines.
My BiL visited the Linssen that is for sale cheap this morning and, as predicted it has the bunks in the forward cabins. He was very impressed with the quality of finish on the boat so I think, if we do go for the shared ownership option, a Linssen might be the one to go for.
The only Broom of a near-suitable size we can find in Netherlands is a 44 which is a bit too old (1995) and getting a bit big.
There's an Atlantic 42 in Dublin, EU paid but getting it to mainland Europe could be difficult
I think we're definitely leaning to renting a Linssen this year with a view to buying later

I rented a Linssen a couple years back on the Canal du Midi as far south as you could go.

Whilst I’m very familiar with the, brand, boat and quality of build I was pleasantly surprised just how much I enjoyed an extended stay on it.

So much so I’ve always got half an eye on a 30/32, one in particular nearby !

 

[SimonX]

I rented a Linssen a couple years back on the Canal du Midi as far south as you could go.

Whilst I’m very familiar with the, brand, boat and quality of build I was pleasantly surprised just how much I enjoyed an extended stay on it.

So much so I’ve always got half an eye on a 30/32, one in particular nearby !

Who rents them on Canal du Midi? That’s one of the places on Madame’s list of places we must see.
The 32 looks a bit small for what we want but the 35 looks surprisingly spacious

 

[Time Out]

Who rents them on Canal du Midi? That’s one of the places on Madame’s list of places we must see.
The 32 looks a bit small for what we want but the 35 looks surprisingly spacious

Was a company called France Aflaot, I’ve had a quick look but not sure if they still do them. Give them a quick google.

They had a 40 in the fleet

 

[SimonX]

Was a company called France Aflaot, I’ve had a quick look but not sure if they still do them. Give them a quick google.

They had a 40 in the fleet

They seem to just do cross rental from Locaboat now.

 

[Time Out]

They seem to just do cross rental from Locaboat now.

Maybe worth a call. I also got a discount from Dussldorf Boat Show which is next week.

There are others that hire them but not sure if it’s in that region.

 

[michael_w]

Be very careful with the standard HISWA sales contract. Several years ago I got caught badly and lost a deposit of E4,000. I walked away rather than throw good money after bad. Send your surveyor from the UK. The Dutch standard survey is little more than a tick box exercise.

PM me if you would like an English translation of the HISWA contract.

 

[Ferris]

Who rents them on Canal du Midi? That’s one of the places on Madame’s list of places we must see.
The 32 looks a bit small for what we want but the 35 looks surprisingly spacious

A company called CarrickCraft rent Linssens on the Shannon Navigation in Ireland. I think they're 35ft
Shannon boat hire - River Shannon cruises with Carrickcraft

 

[SimonX]

A company called CarrickCraft rent Linssens on the Shannon Navigation in Ireland. I think they're 35ft
Shannon boat hire - River Shannon cruises with Carrickcraft

Now that is interesting. They are also at Bellanaleck on Lough Erne. I haven’t been there since I was a boy and we hired a boat from a company called Erne Marine based in the same area. Yes, the boats they have are the Sturdy 35 AC which are a little small for what we want long term but are sufficiently like the 40 AC to give a flavour.

 

[Time Out]

Looks like they have pulled out of France entirely? Plenty of other options though

Linssen Boating Holidays - Homepage

 

[Time Out]

At Dusseldorf Boat Show today and passed the Linssen stand. It looks as if they have deff stopped France but snapped this

 

[SimonX]

My wife and I have spent the past 5 days in the Netherlands and I fully expected to have spent a huge amount of money on a 50% share of a Linssen 40 AC…
But no, she isn’t convinced having seen them in person.
Certainly the more expensive of the two is the better buy (newer, lower hours, air con) , the build quality is superb and you would never guess they are 13 and 14 years old to look at them.
I had also allayed my concerns about the VP D3 engines taking to owners online and one in person. I even found one who had “boosted” his D3-110 to 200HP by removing the software Rev limit (3000 to 4000) and a few other tweaks and suffered no ill effects.
But what her ladyship isn’t convinced about is the amount of interior space compared to the Broom 42. Both are very similar external dimensions but the Linssen has a small third cabin which eats into the saloon. The pic below is one of the boats we looked at this week, the second pic is a Broom we looked at last year. The main sleeping cabin is also smaller and has less storage space.

The Linssen does have a huge, easily accessible engine room and a very elaborate but well laid out electrical system ( 8 batteries!). I was also impressed how much of the internal hull was accessible for inspection
So we have come home to think again. The other couple in the deal ( as well as our in-laws) were OK with this and we got on well with them so are still keen to do something together.
Having more money ‘in the pot’ opens up the options on newer Brooms like 39KL, 395 and 425 but none of them has the separate dinette the 42 has.

 

[Whopper]

I would guess most Broom owners eat up top as opposed to the dinette. That’s the case for us on a 38cl. We’ll use the dinette for meal prep but nine times out of ten it’s eat up top. The 39kl 2+2 variant did away with the dinette entirely and the layout makes sense to my mind. That Linssen layout does seem to to put emphasis on the dinette at the expense of the saloon area.

One other consideration, it’s a lot of steps on an aft cabin. No idea your age, mobility or if you have dogs etc. but somthing to consider. I really like the layout of the linssen 40,45 and 500 sedans. Less total space than an equivalent length aft cabin but the lack of steps and the on the water feel are pretty nice!

 

[SimonX]

I would guess most Broom owners eat up top as opposed to the dinette. That’s the case for us on a 38cl. We’ll use the dinette for meal prep but nine times out of ten it’s eat up top. The 39kl 2+2 variant did away with the dinette entirely and the layout makes sense to my mind. That Linssen layout does seem to to put emphasis on the dinette at the expense of the saloon area.

One other consideration, it’s a lot of steps on an aft cabin. No idea your age, mobility or if you have dogs etc. but somthing to consider. I really like the layout of the linssen 40,45 and 500 sedans. Less total space than an equivalent length aft cabin but the lack of steps and the on the water feel are pretty nice!

The ladies in the group all prefer having the dinette. I’m the oldest at 67, my wife and her sister are both 58 (twins), BiL 60. The other couple I don’t know precisely but around 60. No dogs or plans to have one.
The Linssen 45 was good but the one we saw was too new and too expensive (475k Euro). I was impressed with the Linssens personally especially from a maintenance point of view - you can walk round the engine and all the electrics are on a logical wall layout.
We are going to have a look at another 42CL next week just to remind us and there is a 39KL for sale near us which is the 2+2 variant so we are going to see that too but we need to buy in EU which will limit us.
We’ve been sent the spec on an Atlantic 42 by one of the Dutch brokers although it is a little older than we’d like. In laws are going to look at it and the Broom 425.

 

[Whopper]

The ladies in the group all prefer having the dinette. I’m the oldest at 67, my wife and her sister are both 58 (twins), BiL 60. The other couple I don’t know precisely but around 60. No dogs or plans to have one.
The Linssen 45 was good but the one we saw was too new and too expensive (475k Euro). I was impressed with the Linssens personally especially from a maintenance point of view - you can walk round the engine and all the electrics are on a logical wall layout.
We are going to have a look at another 42CL next week just to remind us and there is a 39KL for sale near us which is the 2+2 variant so we are going to see that too but we need to buy in EU which will limit us.
We’ve been sent the spec on an Atlantic 42 by one of the Dutch brokers although it is a little older than we’d like. In laws are going to look at it and the Broom 425.

The Atlantic 42 has a higher freeboard. The Brooms slope down towards the midship which is better suited to inland side-on mooring Also easier for boarding in general.

 

[Skipper Felice]

My wife and I have spent the past 5 days in the Netherlands and I fully expected to have spent a huge amount of money on a 50% share of a Linssen 40 AC…
But no, she isn’t convinced having seen them in person.
Certainly the more expensive of the two is the better buy (newer, lower hours, air con) , the build quality is superb and you would never guess they are 13 and 14 years old to look at them.
I had also allayed my concerns about the VP D3 engines taking to owners online and one in person. I even found one who had “boosted” his D3-110 to 200HP by removing the software Rev limit (3000 to 4000) and a few other tweaks and suffered no ill effects.
But what her ladyship isn’t convinced about is the amount of interior space compared to the Broom 42. Both are very similar external dimensions but the Linssen has a small third cabin which eats into the saloon. The pic below is one of the boats we looked at this week, the second pic is a Broom we looked at last year. The main sleeping cabin is also smaller and has less storage space.
View attachment 206128View attachment 206129
The Linssen does have a huge, easily accessible engine room and a very elaborate but well laid out electrical system ( 8 batteries!). I was also impressed how much of the internal hull was accessible for inspection
So we have come home to think again. The other couple in the deal ( as well as our in-laws) were OK with this and we got on well with them so are still keen to do something together.
Having more money ‘in the pot’ opens up the options on newer Brooms like 39KL, 395 and 425 but none of them has the separate dinette the 42 has.

Well - you are on a good way for your evaluation: Perhaps you have to see 20 other good boats - Brooms, Linssens, all you like.
You - and the wifes - will always find some important big or small issues. At the end of the day have a short list .... sit down and listen to your hearts!
Go forward and go for the contract for the best loved yacht - be happy .... and all the 1000 things that you have to fix or change: You can easy do it over the next years.

 

[CJ13]

I would echo Whopper’s comments re the dinette. We bought a 42’ SK (poor mans Linssen) last year and never eat in dinette. We eat in the saloon which is light and has views.
The dinette is only used for food prep & storage.